Category: Norwich
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Staging a move from house painting
1920s switch from manual work
1920s switch from manual work A combination of silver screen and architecture is Cutlock & Co’s top find from a speedy trawl through the online 1921 census records, made available for free by Findmypast over the recent Remembrance Weekend. Plus some other items of interest. Thatch and bright lights The husband of great aunt Ellen (nee Neal), Henry JV Williams, appears in the 1911 census as a general decorator (and earlier as an upholsterer/paperhanger) – the same line of work as great grandfather Arthur AB Howes. » »
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Sideways and backwards for the Neals
A different root to the Norwich line
A different root to the Norwich line Other family history researchers with an interest in the same Neal line as Cutlock & Co have identified Henry Neal and Elizabeth Gedge as ancestors, via the couple’s son Robert – they would be our four times great grandparents. Robert is referenced in the marriage record of two times great grandfather Robert Neal (born about 1816, Norwich) as his father, with a trade of ‘printer’. Trying to firm up this connection, however, hits a barrier in that little else » »
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Not quite teetotal Norwich ancestors
A pub for every day of the year
A pub for every day of the year One of the first stories to emerge when reviewing my initial family history research some years ago was the contrast between my Norwich born grandparents tendency to alcohol abstinence and the number of pubs managed by relatives. I made some notes at the time but never quite got round to turning them into an article. A U3A group session on ‘Pubs and Publicans’ {1} has spurred me on. A family of pubs or non-drinkers? The Norwich side of » »
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Making the freeman cut at the stationers
Cutlock test does its job
Cutlock test does its job My standard ‘Cutlock test’ of new online databases has come up with the goods on the recently released ‘Norwich Freemen Records Online’. Just using Cutlock as the search term throws up one result, John Cutlock as a new freeman in May 1857. This is down to his apprenticeship – at the 1851 census 15-year old great great great uncle John was recorded as an apprentice to a law stationer. The search result includes ‘linked records’, as there will be a sponsor » »
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Entirely to the Water from Birth
The nautical Harper Smiths
The nautical Harper Smiths It is not often nowadays that an article in Who Do You Think You Are? magazine sends me off immediately to follow it up. But the March issue, received yesterday, has a Focus article on ‘Masters and Mates Certificates’ {4} which indicated it was worth checking to see if the 3 x great grandfather who had the title Captain could be found. He was born in the 1790s, so was already a master mariner when certificates came in from 1850. There was » »
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No Irish swearing please
A first cousin (twice removed) Mary Ellen Watts married Edward Arthur Feek in 1905. Edward’s parents were Elijah and Harriet (maiden name Meek). Can you guess the most frequent transcription error for the surname, perhaps from the title of this piece? Yes, Feck, although for one particularly badly written census record (1881) it comes out as Teek. As some family trees on Ancestry have what I believe is a stray child to Elijah and Harriet (the 1911 census clearly says they had 6 children, all still » »